Nick Vadala at Philly.com offers a piece on the term 'Black Friday,' which was coined by the Philadelphia police.
As you leave your home in a post-Thanksgiving haze to go forth and spend hard-earned dollars on what ostensibly are deep, deep discounts on popular consumer goods today — the dreaded Black Friday — please remember one thing: It all started right here.
Well, calling it "Black Friday," anyway.
Temple University professor and psychologist Frank Farley recently spoke with NBC about the naming of what now is a sort of national holiday in its own right, saying that we have Philly cops to thank for the term.
"Back in the 1930s, there was the Army-Navy game on Saturday," he told NBC. "The day before, people are rushing into Philly; the police are overwhelmed, and the idea of this day is just a very, very bad day for the cops. It became labeled 'Black Friday' by the police."
You can read the rest of the piece and watch a video via the below link:
I thought the definition comes from accounting, meaning businesses make enough money to be "in the black" (profit) as opposed to being "in the red" (loss).
ReplyDeleteBut since so many great things originate in Philadelphia -- Declaration of Independence, cheesesteak sandwiches, mummers' parades, American Bandstand -- who am I to quibble with the cops.